When I first started this blog, I struggled to find my voice. My writing was awkward and alternated between self-consciously verbose and too slangy. After a while, I got a good flow going and really found my voice. I mostly did this by writing for myself and writing about whatever came to mind. I wrote […]

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” ~ Paulo Freire In my previous post, I described my effort to take a “cookie cutter” lab and make it more inquiry-based. My students decided to test 7 […]

I’m not sure where this is going but I feel like I need to do something different with this blog. My basic modus operandi of the past year has been to write posts that are esssentially informative, persuasive or motivational. While this has been fun and has helped me to hone by beliefs about education […]

It’s better to burn out than to fade away ~ Kurt Cobain I’ve been gone way too long from this space. Many things have been going on in the meantime, though. I’ve applied for and received an entrepreneurial award from Washington STEM! I’ve applied for an AMGEN Award for Science Teaching Excellence (wish me luck!). […]

I have a new transfer student in my chemistry class. Yesterday, I overheard her talking to her classmates about her previous science class. She said something along the lines of, “we did a lot of experiments where we had to design our own experiment and write lab reports about it. We didn’t really learn anything, […]

You may remember, when we last left our hero, he’d enjoyed a subtle epiphany. It went something like this, “I plan all this stuff and throw it at the kids. They don’t think it’s as cool as I do. Now what?” There were 3 main problems with my old approach: Not enough room for student […]

This past year was my first experience blogging with students. It certainly had its ups and downs but was a positive experience overall for me and for my students. To read why we were blogging in science class (and why I think your students should blog) go here: “Why Are We Blogging in Science Class?” […]